If you’re searching for how to clean Saltillo tile or Mexican tile flooring, this post is for you! If you have the time, tools, and disposition you can do a basic cleaning of your Saltillo tile flooring. For deep cleaning or neglected floors it’s best to get in touch with Mexican Tile Restoration to do professional Saltillo Tile Cleaning.
Saltillo Tile Cleaning Facts
Cleaning and maintaining Saltillo tiles are difficult, this is because they are made of extremely soft material that are porous. Often, these tiles will have had topical sealers used on them, making them even more challenging to keep clean. Depending on the condition of sealer used on them will in most cases be significant to how good they will look after being cleaned. It is suggested to use an alkaline cleaner on Saltillo tiles, no matter if a topical cleaner has been used on them or not.
You need to try and determine whether or not a topical sealer has been applied to your Saltillo tile before you clean them for the first time. Look closely at the grout lines, if you can see a clear glossy sealer, then an application of topical sealer was used at one time or another. Another way of determining this is by water beads being noticeable on the tile surface, if you can see water beads, then there more than likely has been a topical sealer used. In the case that there has been a topical sealer applied, it means that basically, you are going to be the sealer surface, rather than the tile themselves. If you notice that alkaline cleaner is not cleaning the surface of the topical sealer effectively, it might be that you will have to strip off the sealer from each of the tiles first.
Cleaning Saltillo Tiles With Alkaline Cleaner
You will need to mix your solution of alkaline cleaner to some hot water, followed by pouring directly to the Saltillo tile flooring. Then allow that to sit on the tiles for approximately fifteen minutes, it will help to loosen up the grime that has built up in the tiles. However, do not wait long enough for the alkaline to dry completely, so the best thing to do here is to repeatedly pour more of the solution onto the tiles while waiting the fifteen minutes and also while cleaning the tiles. The Saltillo tiles are going to soap up a large amount of the cleaning solution, especially if they have never been sealed before, making it important to keep them saturated during the wait.
While the alkaline cleaner does its job and breaks up the grime in the tiles you need to be scrubbing them using a scrub pad or brush, these should be safe to use without leaving scratches on the tiles. Once all of the grime has been scrubbed from the tiles you will need to rinse the tile thoroughly, not leaving any of the cleaning solution behind. You can use a regular mop and a bucket of hot water for rinsing the floor. You may also choose to use a shop-vac to remove the extra cleaning solution.
If some of the grout still appears to be stained use some acidic cleaner to remove these difficult spots from the grout lines. Simply pour some of the acidic tile cleaner onto the tile and it will fizz, this means it is working. Afterwards, use a scrub pad to give the grout lines a new appearance.
Gleaming Clean Saltillo Tile
It is more difficult to clean Saltillo tile floors which have been sealed with a topical sealer. For when you are cleaning tile that has been previously sealed with a sealer, you are basically only cleaning the sealer itself. When the solution has been left on the tiles surface for a period of time it begins to break up and it mars the topical sealers appearance. Therefore, it is important that alkaline cleaner is properly diluted, while scrubbing sealed tiles gently with soft scrub pads. The use of soft scrub pads will prevent leaving scratches on the topical sealer. You only want to soften up the sealer enough to get the embedded grime out without damaging the finish.
Once the sealed tiles have been cleaned and rinsed the original sealer will re-harden, giving the tiles a new appearance once again. However, there are a lot of times that the embedded grime will not come out by using just a normal procedure, and an acidic cleaner will not be able to help any further in removing embedded grime from the Saltillo tiles. If this should turn out to be the case, it will be necessary to strip each of the Saltillo tiles, perhaps even having to removed them.
Saltillo Tile Floor Cleaning
If you’ve got a home or business that has Saltillo tile Mexican Tile Restoration offers service in Phoenix, Arizona and Orange County, California. Our team has the team, tools, and knowledge to care for your Saltillo flooring the right way. Protect your home’s value and avoid needing to replace your flooring with professional service that is as affordable as it is quick and easy to schedule.
Call today to schedule your
Saltillo tile floor cleaning service 602-370-6082